In a surprising turn of events, 2K Sports has confirmed that they've stopped development on College Hoops 2K9, which was originally scheduled for a November release. Why the sudden cancellation? According to 2K, they couldn't negotiate a fitting deal with the Collegiate Licensing Company (licensee of over 200 college trademarks) and say that they would have loved to create College Hoops, "but given our disciplined approach to the business, we do not believe the current discussions would result in an acceptable outcome". The rabbit hole gets deeper as rumors are swirling that the CLC's relationship with EA (and their NCAA March Madness franchise) has caused them to act unfairly in negotiations with 2K. In other words, the CLC could be cheating on 2K! Gasp! Whatever the reason, we know that there will be no College Hoops 2K9, so everyone will have to settle for March Madness. So much drama ...[Via Game Stooge]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
1-15-2008 @ 1:51PM
xenocidic said...
eh nerds and geeks shouldn't be playing sports games anyway
1-15-2008 @ 2:01PM
Chase said...
God damn EA.
1-15-2008 @ 2:04PM
AnOffday said...
I hate EA Sports more every day.
1-15-2008 @ 2:08PM
pandlcg said...
So March Madness scores 11 lower than College Hoops (according to Metacritic) and EA's response is to buy up exclusive licensing instead of making a better game.
Fuck you EA. I used to love sports games.
1-15-2008 @ 2:26PM
Mark said...
With all these EA exclusive licenses for NFL and other leagues, I'm glad I don't play sports games. I don't have to worry that my favorite game won't come out because of some stupid exclusive deal. Now, if EA starts locking up car companies to only have their cars in EA games, then I'll be upset.
1-15-2008 @ 2:27PM
kastonie said...
so all they have is baseball and fake football? man.... thats crazy...and they can make a totally better game than anything ea puts out.... EA suck...its in the balls..or something
1-15-2008 @ 2:44PM
Evan said...
Yet another reason to hate EA. To this day I believe NFL 2K5 was the best football game I ever played.
1-15-2008 @ 2:51PM
Chase said...
As a long-time NFL, football video game fan, I agree one-thousand percent.
1-15-2008 @ 5:30PM
Chris Smith said...
Amen brother.
1-15-2008 @ 2:52PM
zlionsfan said...
I'd like to thank EA for moves like this. Before their obsession with exclusive licenses (and their decision to stop fixing obvious bugs and just churn out the same old stuff every year), I was having tons of difficulty playing all the games I liked every year.
Now, it's much easier. I rarely play sports games any more. More time for Mass Effect, Orange Box, GTA IV ...
1-15-2008 @ 9:56PM
Jonah Falcon said...
The Orange Box = EA lol
1-15-2008 @ 10:28PM
pandlcg said...
@Falcon
EA just published it, they had nothing to do with the development of the game (at least not the 360 version, but they ported the PS3 version)
1-15-2008 @ 3:13PM
G said...
2K's College Hoops has been the best basketball game on the 360 each year. Period. In fact, they're the only basketball games I own for the 360. The March Madness games are garbage compared to College Hoops. I guess EA will be going after baseball and hockey next.
1-15-2008 @ 3:30PM
Pyronite said...
EA hasn't bought exclusive rights to NCAA basketball. What are you guys smoking?
I hate EA as much as the next guy, but at this point, the only thing the story suggests are RUMORS. If EA had exclusive licensing, we sure as hell would have heard about it, and 2k wouldn't have been negotiating in the first place.
EA might hold some clout of the CLC, but again... it sounds like half of the commenters didn't even bother reading the post.
1-15-2008 @ 3:49PM
xenocidic said...
read the post?
you must be new here...
1-16-2008 @ 6:03AM
Boff said...
:o)
1-15-2008 @ 3:43PM
Larry said...
I'm upset that no 2k NFL game exists and now this...I switch over from EA back in the 2005 College Hoops game and haven't looked back. This makes my sports world a sad one again. I'm definitely going to buy this one and hope that 2k continues to update the rosters like they did for NFL 2k5. That'd be sweet.
1-15-2008 @ 10:18PM
Lilbrudder11 said...
this is an OUTRAGE!!!
I call shananigans...
1-16-2008 @ 6:15AM
Boff said...
You'd be better of calling shenanigans mate
1-16-2008 @ 10:09AM
Whingnut said...
Great! So I imagine this, too, will go the way of the Madden franchise since their NFL exclusivity contract - straight into the toilet. No competition = No need to innovate.